About Sir Francis Fox

Sir Francis Fox (1844 - 1927) was an English civil engineer, who was responsible for the bridges over the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi and Sydney Harbour, the Mersey Railway Tunnel and the Liverpool Overhead Railway, and extending the London Underground.

Biography

Born in Derby, England, he was one of three sons of the noted engineer and contractor Sir Charles Fox. Educated at Brighton College, he entered into business with his father and his brother Charles Douglas in 1857. In 1860 the three formed a partnership, the firm being known as Sir Charles Fox and Sons. Fox was also a consultant for the Simplon Tunnel and in 1878 constructed the replacement train shed at Bristol Temple Meads railway station. He became an engineer for the Great Central Railway and, in 1889, collaborated with his brother Douglas and H.W. Braddock in the construction of Marylebone station, London. He also assisted his brother in the construction of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, which was opened in 1893.

Fox also assisted in the shoring-up of several great cathedrals including St Paul's Cathedral and Winchester Cathedral in 1905, where he employed tie-rods and grouting to bind the walls together. He married twice, in 1869 to Selena Wright who died in 1900, he then married Agnes Horne in 1901. Fox had a son and three daughters from his first marriage.